Five worthy reads is a regular column on five noteworthy items we’ve discovered while researching trending and timeless topics. This week, we unravel the secrets to internet security.

The millennial equivalent to the adage “charity begins at home” would probably be “online security begins at home.” By home, I mean the internet—the primary source of your average netizen’s entertainment and knowledge. The advantages of the internet certainly outweigh its downsides, but it’s important that these downsides don’t become reasons to stop going online for good.

One area of concern is cyberattacks, since attackers don’t always prey on data directly. Most of the time, their vantage point is people—individuals who’d fall into traps like keylogging, phishing links, social engineering, or exploring the deep web unprotected. While enterprises can leverage various solutions and strategies to strengthen their IT security perimeters, it is often human error that leads to large-scale breaches.

The average netizen’s online security practices—or lack thereof—affect those in their shared networking space. That being said, it’s wise to know certain security hygiene best practices and follow them while online. Now, this doesn’t translate to hosting a massive firewall or IDS/IPS at home; smaller actions such as regularly applying security updates and scrutinizing potentially malicious links, emails, and Wi-Fi connections can all make a huge difference in the long run. Not only that, but enabling two-factor authentication plays a vital role when accounts do become compromised.

Let’s check out some interesting reads that help us understand and employ effective data security practices:

With the advent of stringent data privacy laws like the GDPR, we as consumers now have an edge in controlling how our data is used. However, we should still regulate the amount of personal data that we share online, especially on social media and e-commerce sites. I mean, we wouldn’t have to worry about our sensitive data—like our interests, religion, or sexual orientation—being sold to advertisers and data processors if we didn’t share that personal data online in the first place, right?

As you can see, internet security indeed begins at home. So, the first step towards security is to educate ourselves and everyone around us about the significance of data privacy, gauge our data sharing requirements, and identify the repercussions of losing that data.